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Dave Humphrey: Food security relies on bees

Posted:
06/21/2013 01:00:00 AM MDT

The powerful Sunday guest column, about the high correlation between Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD , a mass destruction of bees) and the rising use of "neonic" -based insecticides, was outright alarming. This is not a story about some obscure Preble meadow mice; this is about the action agent of maybe one third of our food source, not to mention millions of home gardens. So I thought to verify the claim and found a report by Harvard, released March 13, 2012, titled "In situ replication of honey bee colony collapse disorder." Hives were treated with the subject insecticide (imidacloprid-based), at a carefully administered sub-lethal level consistent with dosages in the real ecosystems, and tracked alongside some control colonies. Nearly a half year after exposure, 94 percent of the hives were dead. Dead bees were found not inside, but on the ground and the hives left full of honey. The control hives behaved normally with one-fourth dead from dysentery. This compares with the symptoms of CCD.

Given the apparent urgency of the situation, one would expect the EPA and the states to be all over it. The Harvard research was done in 2010, so word was out to the agencies soon after. Also, the CCD problem began in 2006 shortly following the use of neonics. The evidence is powerful and deserves research on a scale equal to the environmental hazard presented by imidacloprid applied to corn used in corn syrup fed to bees, which is a typical practice by hive farmers to replace the honey taken from the hives.

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This is a call to action for us in Boulder County and to people everywhere to activate their representatives for the good of our bees. Our own food security is at stake. Let's roll.

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